| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Dark Lady of the Sonnets by George Bernard Shaw: impossibilities at that; whilst Mr Harris's play is serious both in
size, intention, and quality. But there could not in the nature of
things be much resemblance, because Frank conceives Shakespear to have
been a broken-hearted, melancholy, enormously sentimental person,
whereas I am convinced that he was very like myself: in fact, if I
had been born in 1556 instead of in 1856, I should have taken to blank
verse and given Shakespear a harder run for his money than all the
other Elizabethans put together. Yet the success of Frank Harris's
book on Shakespear gave me great delight.
To those who know the literary world of London there was a sharp
stroke of ironic comedy in the irresistible verdict in its favor. In
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from New Arabian Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson: arms bare to the shoulder, and a red flower set provocatively in
her corset, he repeated to himself for the many hundredth time that
she was one of the loveliest creatures in the world of women.
Alas! when she went round with the tambourine, the golden youth of
Castel-le-Gachis turned from her coldly. Here and there a single
halfpenny was forthcoming; the net result of a collection never
exceeded half a franc; and the Maire himself, after seven different
applications, had contributed exactly twopence. A certain chill
began to settle upon the artists themselves; it seemed as if they
were singing to slugs; Apollo himself might have lost heart with
such an audience. The Berthelinis struggled against the
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: little mind for something plausible and not too grotesque.
It would tax his invention, certainly, and I felt, this time,
over his real embarrassment, a curious thrill of triumph.
It was a sharp trap for the inscrutable! He couldn't play any
longer at innocence; so how the deuce would he get out of it?
There beat in me indeed, with the passionate throb of this
question an equal dumb appeal as to how the deuce _I_ should.
I was confronted at last, as never yet, with all the risk
attached even now to sounding my own horrid note.
I remember in fact that as we pushed into his little chamber,
where the bed had not been slept in at all and the window,
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The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from Egmont by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe: French at Saint-Quentin (1557) and Gravelines (1558) Egmont made a
reputation as one of the most brilliant generals in Europe, and became the
idol of his countrymen. When in 1559 a new Regent of the Netherlands
was to be created, the people hoped that Philip II, who had succeeded
Charles, would choose Egmont; but instead he appointed his half-sister
Margaret, Duchess of Parma. Under the new Regent the persecution of the
Protestants was rigorously pressed, and in 1565 Egmont, though a
Catholic, was sent to Madrid to plead for clemency. He was received by
the King with every appearance of cordiality, but shortly after his return
home the Duke of Alva was sent to the Netherlands with instructions to
put down with an iron hand all resistance to his master's will. How terribly
Egmont |
